The opium monopoly

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THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

HEW YORE • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.

TORONTO

Wrapper of packet of opium, as sold in licensed opium shops of Singa-
oore. Each packet contains enough opium for about six smokes.

THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

BY,
ELLEN N. LA MOTTE

AUTHOR OF " BACKWASH OF WAR," " PEKING DUST,'
"CIVILIZATION," ETC.

1920

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, IQJO
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, igzo.

S0>
L

" If this was our battle, if these were our ends,
Which were our enemies, which were our friends ? "
Witter Bynner, in The Nation.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION ix

I. GREAT BRITAIN'S OPIUM MONOPOLY I

II. THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY 6

III. JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR n

IV. SINGAPORE 18

V. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS OPIUM COMMIS-
SION 23

VI. OPIUM IN SIAM 26

VII. HONGKONG 30

VIII. SARAWAK 35

IX. SHANGHAI 37

X. INDIA 44

XI. TURKEY AND PERSIA 54

XII. MAURETIUS 56

XIII. BRITISH NORTH BORNEO 58

XIV. BRITISH GUIANA 62

XV. HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA . . 65

XVI. CONCLUSION 73

INTRODUCTION

WE first became interested in the opium traffic
during a visit to the Far East in 1916. Like most
Americans, we had vaguely heard of this trade,
and had still vaguer recollections of a war between
Great Britain and China, which took place about
seventy-five years ago, known as the Opium War.
From time to time we had heard of the opium
trade as still flourishing in China, and then later
came reports and assurances that it was all over,
accompanied by newspaper pictures of bonfires
of opium and opium pipes. Except for these oc-
casional and incidental memories, we had neither
knowledge of, nor interest in the subject. On our
way out to Japan, in the July of 1916, we met a
young Hindu on the boat, who was outspoken and
indignant over the British policy of establishing the
opium trade in India, as one of the departments of
the Indian Government. Of all phases of British
rule in India, it was this policy which excited him
most, and which caused him most ardently to wish
that India had some form of self-government,
some voice in the control and management of her
own affairs, so that the country could protect
itself from this evil. Without this, he declared, his
country was powerless to put a stop to this traffic
imposed upon it by a foreign government, and he

X INTRODUCTION

greatly deplored the slow, but steady demoraliza-
tion of the nation which was in consequence
taking place. As he produced his facts and figures,
showing what this meant to his people — this
/gradual undermining of their moral fiber and
economic efficiency — we grew more and more
interested. That such conditions existed were
to us unheard of, and unbelievable. It seemed
incredible that in this age, with the consensus
of public opinion sternly opposed to the sale and
distribution of habit-forming drugs, and with
legislation to curb and restrict such practices in-
corporated in the laws of all ethical and civilized
governments, that here, on the other side of the
world, we should come upon opium traffic con-
ducted as a government monopoly. Not only
that, but conducted by one of the greatest and
most highly civilized nations of the world, a na-
tion which we have always looked up to as being
in the very forefront of advanced, progressive
and humane ideals. So shocked were we by what
this young Hindu told us, that we flatly refused
to believe him. We listened to what he had to say
on the subject, but thinking that however earnest
he might be, however sincere in his sense of out-
rage at such a policy, that he must of necessity
be mistaken. We decided not to take his word for
it, but to look into the matter for ourselves.

We did look into the matter. During a stay
in the Far East of nearly a year, in which time we

INTRODUCTION XI

visited Japan, China, Hongkong, French Indo-
China, Siam and Singapore, we looked into the
matter in every country we visited. Wherever
possible we obtained government reports, and
searched them carefully for those passages giving
statistics concerning the opium trade — the amount
of opium consumed, the number of shops where it
was sold, and the number of divans where it was
smoked. We found these shops established under
government auspices, the dealers obtaining their
supplies of opium from the government, and then
obtaining licenses from the government to retail
it. In many countries, we visited these shops and
divans in person, and bought opium in them freely,
just as one goes to a shop to buy cigarettes. We
found a thorough and complete establishment of
the opium traffic, run by the government, as a
monopoly. Revenue was derived through the
sale of opium, through excise taxes upon opium,
and through license fees paid by the keepers of
opium shops and divans. A complete, systematic
arrangement, by which the foreign government
profited at the expense of the subject peoples under
its rule. In European countries and in America,
we find the governments making every effort to
repress the sale of habit-forming drugs. Here,
in the Far East, a contrary attitude prevails.
The government makes every effort to encourage v
and extend it.

Two notable exceptions presented themselves.

Xll INTRODUCTION

One was Japan. There are no opium shops in
Japan, and the Japanese Government is as careful
to protect its people from the evils and dangers
of opium as any European country could be. It
must be remembered, however, that Japan is a
free and independent country. It has never been
conquered by a European country, and perhaps
one explanation as to why the Japanese are a
powerful, virile people, is because Japan is the
one Oriental nation that has never been dominated
/ by a European power, and in consequence, never
drugged.

The other exception is our own possession of the
> Philippines, which although a subject country,
has never had the opium traffic established as
part of the machinery of an alien government.

On our return to America, we were greatly exer-
cised over these facts which we had unearthed.
We continued our researches as to the opium
traffic in the New York Public Library, and in
the Library of Congress, in Washington, in both
of which places there is a rich and abundant litera-
ture on the subject. We obtained ready access
to official blue books and government reports,
issued by the British Government, and it is from
these sources that the material in this book is
largely drawn. We were somewhat hampered
in our investigations by the fact that because of
the war, these blue books have not always been
of recent date, some of them being two or three

INTRODUCTION Xlll

years old. For this reason, it has not always been
possible to give the most recent figures as to
opium consumption and distribution in the various
countries. However, we feel that we have ob-
tained enough information to uphold our case,
and in any event, there is no doubt that the opium
traffic, as fostered by the British Government,
still continues. In looking over the list of British
colonies where it is established, we may find here
and there a diminution in the amount of opium
consumed, but this is probably due to the exi-
gencies of war, to the lack of shipping and
transportation, rather than to any conscientious
scruples or moral turnover; because the revenue
derived from the opium trade is precious. In
some instances, as in the case of the Straits Set-
tlements, the local British Government derives
from forty to fifty per cent of its revenue from this
source. Yet, taken in relation to the whole, it is
not large. However valuable it may be, however
large the percentage in the case of any particular
colony, it can surely never be large enough to
compensate for the stigma attached. It is a blot
upon the honor of a great nation to think that she
deliberately runs her colonies on opium. No rev-
enue, whether large or small, can be justified when
coming from such a source as this.

In all these blue books and official reports, the
question of the Opium Monopoly, as it is called,
is dealt with freely. There is no attempt to hide

XIV INTRODUCTION

or suppress the facts. The subject is reported
frankly and fully. It is all there, for any one to
read who chooses. How then, does it happen that
we in America know nothing about Great Britain's
Opium Monopoly? That the facts are new to us
and come to us as a shock? One is because of our
admiration for Great Britain. Those who know —
and there are a few — hesitate to state them. Those
who know, feel that it is a policy unworthy of her.
We hesitate to call attention to the shortcomings
of a friend. There are other reasons also for this
conspiracy of silence — fear of international com-
plications, fear of endangering the good feeling
between the two countries, England and America.
Consequently England has been able to rely uporr
those who know the facts to keep silent, either

</ through admiration or through fear. Also the
complete ignorance of the rest of us has been an
additional safeguard. Therefore, for nearly a cen-
tury, she has been running her Opium Monopoly
undisturbed. It began as a private industry, about
the time of the East India Company, but later on
passed out of the hands of private individuals into
the department of Opium Administration, one of

* the branches of the colonial government. But,
loyal as we have been all these years, we can re-
main silent no longer. The time is now rapidly
approaching when the two countries, England and
America, are to become closely united. How can
we become truly united, however, when on such

INTRODUCTION XV

a great moral question as this we stand diametri-
cally opposed?

There is still another reason why we should
break silence. The welfare of our own country
is now at stake. The menace of opium is now
threatening America, and our first duty is to our-
selves. Little by little, surreptitiously, this drug
has been creeping in over our borders, and to-day
many thousands of our young men and young
women are drug addicts, habituated to the use of
one of the opium derivatives, morphia or heroin.
The recent campaign against drug users, conducted
by the New York Department of Health, has
uncovered these addicts in great numbers; has
brought them before us, made us see, in spite
of ourselves, that thousands of them exist and
that new ones are being created daily. The ques-
tion arises, how do they obtain the drug? It was
the fortune of the writer to be present during the
first week of the opening of the Health Depart-
ment Clinic for Drug Addicts, and her work con-
sisted in taking the histories of these pitiful, ab-
ject wrecks of men and women who swarmed to
the clinic in hundreds, seeking supplies of the
drug which they could not obtain elsewhere. The
history of these patients was almost invariably
the same — there was a monotony in their tragic,
pathetic recital as to how they became victims,
how they first became acquainted with the drug.
As a rule, they began in extreme youth, generally

XVI INTRODUCTION

between fifteen and twenty years of age, one boy
having begun at the age of thirteen. In nearly
every case they had tried it as a lark, as an ex-
periment. At " parties/ they said, when some
one of the company would pass round a box full
of heroin, inviting them to snuff it. To snuff it,
these children, very much as a small boy goes
behind the barn to try his first cigarette. In
many instances those who produced the box were
peddlers, offering it as a gift at first, knowing
that after a dose or two the fatal habit would be
formed and another customer created. These
peddlers doubtless obtained their supplies from
smugglers. But that takes us back to our argu-
ment, namely, the part played by that great
nation which grows and distributes opium to
the world. For that nation produces an over-
supply of opium, far more than is needed by the
medical profession for the relief of pain. Opium
is not profitable in its legitimate use. It is only
profitable because of the demands of addicts,
men and women deliberately debauched, either
through the legalized machinery of colonial gov-
ernments, or through the illegal activities of
smugglers. A moral sentiment that will balk at
this immense over-production, the sole object of
which is to create drug victims, is the only weapon
to fight it. In giving this book to the public,
we are calling upon that moral sentiment. We
feel that we shall number among our staunchest

INTRODUCTION XV11

supporters that great body of men and women in
England who have for years been vainly fighting
the opium traffic. No more bitter opponents of
this policy are to be found than amongst the Eng-
lish people themselves. From time to time, in
Parliament, sharp debates have arisen as to the
advisability of continuing it, and some of the
greatest men in England have been steadfastly
opposed. The great Gladstone has described it as
"morally indefensible." The time has now come
for us, people of both countries, to unite to stop it.

THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

GREAT BRITAIN'S OPIUM MONOPOLY

IN a book shop in Shanghai, we came upon a small
book with an arresting title, "Drugging a Nation,"
by Samuel Merwin. It was published in 1908,
eight years before we chanced upon it, shabby and
shop worn, its pages still uncut. The people of
Shanghai, the great International Settlement of
this largest city and most important seaport of
China, did not have to read it. They knew, doubt-
less, all that its pages could disclose. We, however,
found it most enlightening. In it there is this
description of the British Opium Monopoly:

"In speaking of it as a 'monopoly' I am not
employing a cant word for effect. I am not making
a case. That is what it is officially styled in a
certain blue book on my table which bears the
title, 'Statement Exhibiting the Moral and Ma-
terial Progress of India during the year i9O5-'6,'
and which was ordered by the House of Commons
to be printed, May 10, 1907. . . . Now to get
down to cases, just what this Government Opium
Monopoly is, and just how does it work? An ex-
cerpt from the rather ponderous blue book will
tell us. It may be dry but it is official and un-
assailable. It is also short.

"'The opium revenue' — thus the blue book —

2 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

* is partly raised by a monopoly of the production
of the drug in Bengal and the United provinces,
and partly by the levy of a duty on all opium
imported from native states. ... In these two
provinces, the crop is grown under the control of
a government department, which arranges the total
area which is to be placed under the crop, with a
view to the amount of opium required.'

"So much for the broader outline. Now for a
few of the details: 'The cultivator of opium in
these monopoly districts receives a license, and is
granted advances to enable him to prepare the
land for the crop, and he is required to deliver the
whole of the product at a fixed price to opium
agents, by whom it is dispatched to the govern-
ment factories at Patna and Ghazipur.'

"The money advanced to the cultivator bears
no interest. The British Indian government lends
money without interest in no other cases. Pro-
ducers of crops other than opium are obliged to
get along without free money.

"When it has been manufactured, the opium
must be disposed of in one way and another; ac-
cordingly: 'The supply of prepared opium re-
quired for consumption in India is made over to
the Excise Department . . . the chests of " pro-
vision " opium, for export, are sold at monthly
sales, which take place at Calcutta.' For the
meaning of the^curious term, 'provision opium' we
have only to read on a little further. 'The opium

GREAT BRITAIN S OPIUM MONOPOLY 3

is received and prepared at the government fac-
tories, where the out-turn of the year included
8,774 chests of opium for the Excise Depart-
ment, about three hundred pounds of various
opium alkaloids, thirty maunds of medical opium;
and 51,770 chests of provision opium for the
Chinese market/ There are about 140 pounds
in a chest. . . . Last year the government had
under poppy cultivation 654,928 acres. And
the revenue to the treasury, including returns
from auction sales, duties and license fees, and
deducting all 'opium expenditures' was nearly </
£22,000,000."

As the blue book states, this opium is auctioned
off once a month. At that point, the British Gov-
ernment, as a government, washes its hands of
the business. Who buys the opium at these gov-
ernment auctions, and what afterwards becomes
of it? "The men who buy in the opium at these
monthly auctions and afterwards dispose of it
are a curious crowd of Parsees, Mohammedans,
Hindoos and Asiatic Jews. Few British names
appear in the opium trade to-day. British dig-
nity prefers not to stoop beneath the taking in
of profits; it leaves the details of a dirty business /
to dirty hands. This is as it has been from the
first. The directors of the East India Company,
years and years before that splendid corporation
relinquished the actual government of India, for-
bade the selling of its specially-prepared opium

4 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

direct to China, and advised a trading station on
the coast whence the drug might find its way
1 without the company being exposed to the dis-
grace of being engaged in illicit commerce.'"

"So clean hands and dirty hands went into
partnership. They are in partnership still, save
that the most nearly Christian of governments
has officially succeeded the company as party of
the first part."

You will say, if the British Government chooses
to deal in opium, that is not our concern. It is
most emphatically our concern. Once a month,
at these great auction sales, the British Govern-
ment distributes thousands of pounds of opium,
which are thus turned loose upon the world, to
bring destruction and ruin to the human race.
The buyers of this opium are not agents of the
British Government. They are merely the dis-
tributors, through whom this drug is directed
into the channels of trade. The British Govern-
ment derives a certain portion of its revenue from
the sale of opium, therefore depends upon these
dealers to find a market for it. They are there-
fore, as distributors, the unofficial agents of the
British Government, through whom it is sold
legitimately, or smuggled around the world. In
seeking to eradicate the drug evil, we must face
the facts, and recognize clearly that the source of
supply is the British Government, through whose
agents, official and unofficial, it is distributed.

GREAT BRITAIN S OPIUM MONOPOLY 5

America, so they tell us, is now menaced by the
drug evil. Now that prohibition is coming into
effect, we are told that we are now confronted by
a vice more terrible, far more deteriorating and
dangerous. If that is true, then we must recognize
our danger and guard against it. Some of the
opium and morphia which reaches this country
is smuggled in; the rest is imported by the big
wholesale drug houses. There is an unlimited
supply of it. As we have seen, the British Govern-
ment encourages poppy production, even to the
extent of lending money without interest to all
those who are willing to raise this most profitable
crop. The monopoly opium is sold once a month
to the highest bidders, and some of these highest
bidders are unscrupulous men who must find their
markets how and where they can. That fact,
of course, is of no moment to the British Govern-
ment. It is of deepest concern to Americans,
however. To the north of us we have the Do-
minion of Canada. To the south, the No-Man's
Land of Mexico. At the present moment, the
whole country is alarmed at the growing menace
of the drug habit, which is assuming threaten-
ing proportions.

II

THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY

LET us quote from another dry official record, of
unimpeachable veracity — the Statesman's Year-
Book, for 1916. On page 140, under the heading
of The British Empire: India and Dependencies,
we read: "Opium. In British territory the cul-
tivation of the poppy for the production of opium
is mainly restricted to the United Provinces, and
the manufacture of the opium from this region is
a State monopoly. A limited amount is also
grown in the Punjab for local consumption and to
produce poppy seeds. In the monopoly districts
the cultivator receives advances from Govern-
ment to enable him to prepare the land for the
crop, and he is bound to sell the whole of the prod-
uce at a fixed price to Government agents, by
whom it is despatched to the Government fac-
tory at Ghazipur to be prepared for the market.
The chests of manufactured opium are sold by
auction in Calcutta at monthly sales. A reserve
is kept in hand to supply the deficiencies of bad
seasons, and a considerable quantity is distributed
by the Indian excise departments. Opium is also
grown in many of the Native States of Rajaputana
and Central -India. These Native States have
agreed to conform to the British system. No

6

THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY 7

opium may pass from them into British territory
for consumption without payment of duty.

"The bulk of the exports of opium from India
has been to China. By arrangements with that
country, the first one being in 1907, the exports
from India have been limited, and provision made
for the cessation of the export to China when the
native Chinese production of opium shall be
suppressed. The trade with China is now prac-
tically suspended."

The important things to notice in the above
statement are these: The growing of poppies, the
manufacture of opium, and the monthly auction
sales continue. Also, the opium trade with China
is practically at an end. The history of the opium
traffic in China is a story complete in itself and
will be dealt with in another chapter. At present,
we must notice that the trade with China is prac-
tically suspended, but that the British Govern-
ment is still auctioning off, once a month at Cal-
cutta, great quantities of opium. Where does
this opium go — who are the consumers? If not
to China, then where?

The same reliable authority, the Statesman's
Year-Book for 1918, has this to say on the sub-
ject. On page 130 we read: "Opium: In British
territory the cultivation of the poppy for the pro-
duction of opium is practically confined to the
United Provinces, and the manufacture of opium
from this region is a State monopoly. The bulk

8 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

of the exported opium is at present either sent to
the United Kingdom, or supplied direct to the
Governments of consuming countries in the Far
East; a certain quantity is also sold by auction
in Calcutta at monthly sales. Opium is also
grown in many of the Native States of Rajputana
,and Central India, which have agreed to conform
to the British system." The following tables,
taken from most reliable authority, give some
idea of the exports to the "consuming countries
of the Far East." Note that Japan began buying
opium in 1911-12. We shall have something to
say about the Japanese smuggling later. Also
note that it was in 1907 that Great Britain and
China entered into agreement, the outcome to be
the suppression of the opium trade in China. But
see the increasing imports into the treaty ports;
up till almost the very last moment British opium
being poured into China. In the second table,
observe the increasing importation into England,
(United Kingdom), synchronous with the in-
creased exports to Japan, which will be discussed
later.

THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY

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Ill

JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR

IN an article which appeared in the New York
Times, under date of February 14, 1919, we read:
"A charge that the Japanese Government se-
cretly fosters the morphia traffic in China and
other countries in the Far East is made by a cor-
respondent in the North China Herald in its issue
of December 2ist last. The correspondent asserts
that the traffic has the financial support of the
Bank of Japan, and that the Japanese postal
service in China aids, although 'Japan is a signa-
tory to the agreement which forbids the import into
China of morphia or of any appliances used in its
manufacture or application.'

"Morphia no longer can be purchased in Europe,
the correspondent writes. The seat of industry
has been transferred to Japan, and morphia is
now manufactured by the Japanese themselves.
Literally, tens of millions of yen are transferred
annually from China to Japan for the payment of
Japanese morphia. . . .

"In South China, morphia is sold by Chinese
peddlers, each of whom carries a passport certi-
fying that he is a native of Formosa, and there-
fore entitled to Japanese protection. Japanese
drug stores throughout China carry large stocks

ii

12 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

of morphia. Japanese medicine vendors look to
morphia for their largest profits. Wherever Japan-
ese are predominant, there the trade flourishes.
Through Dairen, morphia circulates throughout
Manchuria and the province adjoining; through
Tsingtao, morphia is distributed over Shantung
province, Anhui, and Kiangsu, while from For-
mosa morphia is carried with opium and other
contraband by motor-driven fishing boats to some
point on the mainland, from which it is distributed
throughout the province of Fukien and the north
of Kuangtung. Everywhere it is sold by Japanese
under extra-territorial protection."

The article is rather long, and proves beyond
doubt the existence of a well-organized and tre-
mendous smuggling business, by means of which
China is being deluged with morphia. In the body
of the article we find this paragraph:

"While the morphia traffic is large, there is
every reason to believe that the opium traffic
upon which Japan is embarking with enthusiasm,
is likely to prove even more lucrative. In the
Calcutta opium sales, Japan has become one of
the considerable purchasers of Indian opium. . . .
Sold by the Government of India, this opium is
exported under permits applied for by the Japanese
Government, is shipped to Kobe, and from Kobe
is transshipped to Tsingtao. Large profits are
made in this trade, in which are interested some of
the leading firms of Japan."

JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR 13

This article appears to be largely anti-Japanese.
In fact, more anti-Japanese than anti-opium. Anti-
Japanese sentiment in America is played upon by
showing up the Japanese as smugglers of opium.
The part the British Government plays in this
traffic is not emphasized. "In the Calcutta opium
sales, Japan has become one of the considerable
purchasers of Indian opium . . . sold by the
Government of India." We are asked to condemn
the Japanese, who purchase their stocks of opium
as individuals, and who distribute it in the capacity
of smugglers. We are not asked to censure the
British Government which produces, manufac-
tures and sells this opium as a State monopoly.
We are asked to denounce the Japanese and their
nefarious smuggling and shameful traffic, but
the source of supply, which depends upon these
smugglers as customers at the monthly auc-
tions, is above reproach. A delicate ethical distinc-
tion.

However, there is no doubt that the Japanese
are ardent smugglers. In an article in the March,
1919, number of "Asia" by Putnam Weale, we
find the following bit: * "At all ports where
Japanese commissioners of Maritime Customs (in
China) hold office, it is undeniable that centres of
contraband trade have been established, opium and
its derivatives being so openly smuggled that the
annual net import of Japanese morphia (although

* " A Fair Chance for Asia," by Putnam Weale, page 227.

14 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

this trade is forbidden by International Conven-
tion) is now said to be something like 20 tons a
year — sufficient to poison a whole nation."

Mr. Weale is an Englishman, therefore more
anti-Japanese than anti-opium. We do not recall
any of his writings in which he protests against
the opium trade as conducted by his Government,
nor the part his Government plays in fostering
and encouraging it.

However, there are other Englishmen who see
the situation in a more impartial light, and who are
equally critical of both Great Britain and Japan.
In his book, "Trade Politics and Christianity in
Africa and the East," by A. J. Macdonald, M. A.,
formerly of Trinity College, Cambridge, we find
the facts presented with more balance. Thus,
on page 229: "... In the north of China an-
other evil is springing up. The eradication of
the opium habit is being followed by the develop-
ment of the morphia traffic. . . . The morphia
habit in northern China, especially Manchuria,
is already widespread. The Chinese Government
is alert to the evil, but their efforts to repress it
are hampered by the action of traders, mainly
Japanese, who elude the restrictions imposed by
the Chinese and Japanese Governments. . . .
China is being drenched with morphia. It is in-
credible that anything approaching the amount
could possibly be devoted to legitimate purposes.
It is said that in certain areas coolies are to be seen

JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR 15

'covered all over with needle punctures.' An in-
jection of the drug can be obtained for three or
four cents. In Newchang 2,000 victims of the
morphia habit died in the winter of 1914-15.
Morphia carries off its victims far more rapidly
than opium. . . . Morphia is not yet manu-
factured in any appreciable quantities in the East,
and certainly even Japan cannot yet manufacture
the hypodermic injectors by means of which the
drug is received. The bulk of the manufacture /
takes place in England, Germany and Austria. . . . \l
In this traffic, two firms in Edinburgh and one in
London are engaged. The trade is carried on
through Japanese agents. The Board of Trade
returns show that the export of morphia from Great
Britain to the East has risen enormously during
the last few years —

1911 ............ 5> tons

1912
1913

". . . The freedom which allows three British
firms to supply China with morphia for illicit
purposes is a condemnation of English Christian-
ity."

This book of Mr. Macdonald's was published
in 1916. Mr. Weale's article was published in
1919, in which he speaks of an importation of about
twenty tons of morphia. Apparently the three

l6 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

British firms which manufacture morphia, two in
Edinburgh and one in London are still going strong.
Japan, however, appears to be growing impatient
with all this opprobrium cast upon her as the dis-
tributor of drugs, especially since much of the
outcry against this comes from America. Our
own country seems to be assisting in this traffic
in a most extensive manner. The Japan Society
Bulletin No. 60 calls attention to this:

NEW TURN IN MORPHIA TRAFFIC

The morphia traffic in China has taken a new turn,
according to the Japan Advertiser. It quotes Putnam
Weale to the effect that whilst in recent years the main
distributors have been Japanese, the main manufac-
turers have been British. The morphia has been ex-
ported in large quantities from Edinburgh to Japan,
but as the result of licensing the exports of this drug
from Great Britain, the shipments to Japan dropped
from 600,229 ounces in 1917 to one-fourth that amount
in 1918. The Japan Chronicle, speaking from "ab-
solutely authentic information," states that 113,000
ounces of morphia arrived in Kobe from the United
States in the first five months of 1919. These figures
are not given as the total shipments received in Kobe,
but merely as the quantity of which The Chronicle has
actual knowledge. It states further that this morphia
is being transhipped in Kobe harbor to vessels bound
for China. Dr. Paul S. Reinsch, who has resigned his
post as Minister to China, has stated that he will use
every resource in his power to stop the shipment from

JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR If

America of morphia intended for distribution in China,
in defiance of the international convention which pro-
hibits the sale of the drug in that country.

If sufficient publicity is cast upon the distributors,
Japanese, English and American, public sentiment
may in time take cognizance of the source of all
this mischief, namely, the producer.

IV

SINGAPORE

IN January, 1917, we found ourselves at Singapore,
a British dependency, situated at the end of the
Malay Peninsula, and one of the greatest seaports
of the Orient. We were stopping at the Hotel de
1'Europe, a large and first class hotel. The first
morning at breakfast, the waiter stood beside us,
waiting for our order. He was a handsome young
Malay, dressed in white linen clothes, and wearing
a green jade bracelet on one wrist. We gave him
our order and he did not move off. He continued
to stand quietly beside our chairs, as in a trance.
We repeated the order — one tea, one coffee, two
papayas. He continued to stand still beside us,
stupidly. Finally he went away. We waited for
a long time and nothing happened. At last, after
a long wait, he returned and set before us a teapot
filled with hot water. Nothing else. We repeated
again — tea, coffee, papayas. We said it two or
three times. Then he went away and came back
with some tea. We repeated again, coffee and
fruit. Eventually he brought us some coffee.
Finally, after many endeavors, we got the fruit.
It all took a long time. We then began to realize
that something was the matter with him. He
could understand English well enough to know

18

SINGAPORE 19

what orders we were giving him, but he seemed
to forget as soon as he left our sight. We then
realized that he was probably drugged. It was
the same thing every day. In the morning he was
stupid and dull, and could not remember what we
told him. By evening his brain was clearer, and
at dinner he could remember well enough. The
effects of whatever he had been taking had ap-
parently worn off during the day.

We learned that the opium trade was freely
indulged in, at Singapore, fostered by the Govern-
ment. Singapore is a large city of about 300,0x30
inhabitants, a great number of which are Chinese.
It has wide, beautiful streets, fine government
buildings, magnificent quays and docks — a splen-
did European city at the outposts of the Orient.
We found that a large part of its revenue is derived
from the opium traffic — from the sale of opium,
and from license fees derived from shops where
opium may be purchased, or from divans where it
may be smoked. The customers are mainly
Chinese.

I wanted to visit these Government-licensed
opium shops and opium dens. A friend lent me
two servants, as guides. We three got into rick-
shaws and went down to the Chinese quarter,
where there are several hundred of these places,
all doing a flourishing business. It was early in
the afternoon, but even then, trade was brisk.
The divans were rooms with wide wooden benches

2O THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

running round the sides, on which benches, in
pairs, sharing a lamp between them, lay the
smokers. They purchased their opium on entering,
and then lay down to smoke it. The packages
are little, triangular packets, each containing
enough for about six smokes. Each packet bears
a label, red letters on a white ground, "Monopoly
Opium."

In one den there was an old man — but you can't
tell whether a drug addict is old or not, he looked
as they all do, gray and emaciated — but as he
caught my eye, he laid down the needle on which
he was about to cook his pill, and glanced away.
I stood before him, waiting for him to continue
the process, but he did not move.

"Why doesn't he go on?" I asked my guide.
"He is ashamed to have you see him," came the
reply.

"But why should he be ashamed?" I asked,
"The British Government is not ashamed to sell
to him, to encourage him to drug himself, to ruin
himself. Why should he be ashamed?"

"Nevertheless, he is," replied the guide. "You
see what he looks like — what he has become. He
is not quite so far gone as the others — he is a more
recent victim. He still feels that he has become
degraded. Most of them do not feel that way —
after a while."

So we went on and on, down the long street.
There was a dreadful monotony about it all.

Packet of opium, actual size, as sold in
licensed opium shop in Singapore. The
local government here derives from forty
to fifty per cent of its revenue through
the sale of opium.

SINGAPORE 21

House after house of feeble, emaciated, ill wrecks,
all smoking Monopoly Opium, all contributing,
by their shame and degradation, to the revenues of •/
the mighty British Empire. ^

That evening after dinner, I sat on the wide
verandah of the hotel, looking over a copy of the
" Straits Times." One paragraph, a dispatch from
London, caught my eye. "Chinese in Liverpool.
Reuter's Telegram. London, January 17, 1917.
Thirty-one Chinese were arrested during police
raids last night on opium dens in Liverpool.
Much opium was seized. The police in one place
were attacked by a big retriever and by a number
of Chinese, who threw boots and other articles
from the house-top."

Coming fresh from a tour of the opium-dens of
Singapore, I must say that item caused some
mental confusion. It must also be confusing to
the Chinese. It must be very perplexing to a
Chinese sailor, who arrives in Liverpool on a ship
from Singapore, to find such a variation in customs.
To come from a part of the British Empire where
opium smoking is freely encouraged, to Great
Britain itself where such practices are not toler-
ated. He must ask himself, why it is that the
white race is so sedulously protected from such
vices, while the subject races are so eagerly en-
couraged. It may occur to him that the white
race is valuable and must be preserved, and that
subject races are not worth protecting. This

22 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

double standard of international justice he must
find disturbing. It would seem, at first glance,
as if subject races were fair game — if there is
money in it. Subject races, dependents, who have
no vote, no share in the government and who are
powerless to protect themselves — fair game for
exploitation. Is this double-dealing what we
mean when we speak of "our responsibility to
backward nations," or of "the sacred trust of
civilization" or still again when we refer to "the
White Man's burden " ?

Pondering over these things as I sat on the
hotel verandah, I finally reached the conclusion
that to print such a dispatch as that in the
" Straits Times " was, to say the least, most
tactless.

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS OPIUM
COMMISSION

FROM time to time, certain people in England ap-
parently have qualms as to Great Britain's opium
traffic, and from time to time questions are raised
as to whether or not such traffic is morally de-
fensible. In February, 1909, apparently in answer
to such scruples and questionings on the part of
a few, a very interesting report was published,
"Proceedings of the Commission appointed to
Enquire into Matters Relating to the Use of
Opium in the Straits Settlements and the Feder-
ated Malay States. Presented to both Houses
of Parliament by Command of His Majesty."
This document may be found in the New York
Public Library and is well worth careful perusal.
This Commission consisted of about a dozen
men, some English, some natives of the Straits
Settlements. They apparently made an intensive
and exhaustive study of the subject, carefully ex-
amining it from every angle. Countless witnesses
appeared before them, giving testimony as to the
effects of opium upon the individual. This testi-
mony is interesting, in that it is of a contradictory
nature, some witnesses saying that moderate opium
indulgence is nothing worse than indulgence in

23

24 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

alcoholic beverages, and like alcohol, only per-
nicious if taken to excess. Other witnesses
seemed to think that it was most harmful. The
Commission made careful reports as to the manner
of licensing houses for smoking, the system of
licensing opium farms, etc., and other technical
details connected with this extensive Government
traffic. Finally, the question of revenue was con-
sidered, and while the harmfulness of opium
smoking was a matter of divided opinion, when
it came to revenue there was no division of opinion
at all. As a means of raising revenue, the traffic
was certainly justifiable. It was proven that about
fifty per cent of the revenues of the Straits Settle-
ments and the Federated Malay States came from
the opium trade, and, as was naively pointed out,
to hazard the prosperity of the Colony by lopping

I off half its revenues, was an unthinkable pro-

* j-
ceeding.

The figures given are as follows.
1898. Revenue derived from Opium. . . .45.9 per cent

1899 44-8

1900 43-3

1901 53.2

1902 48.3

1903 47-i

1904 59-1

1905 46.

1906 „....: 53-3

There was one dissenting voice as to the conclu-

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS OPIUM COMMISSION 25

sions reached by this Opium Commission, that
of a Bishop who presented a minority report.
But what are moral scruples against cold facts —
J that there's money in the opium trade ?

This Commission made its report in 1909. But
the opium business is apparently still flourishing
in the Straits Settlements. Thus we read in the
official Blue Book for 1917, "Colony of the Straits
Settlements" that of the total revenue for the
year, $19,672,104, that $9,182,000 came from
opium.

What per cent is that?

VI
OPIUM IN SIAM

BANGKOK, Siam, January, 1917. Siam, an in-
dependent kingdom. As a matter of fact, "pro-
tected" very sternly and thoroughly by Great
Britain and France, so that its "independence"
would about cover an oyster cracker. However,
it is doubtless protected "benevolently" for what
protectorate is anything but benevolent? The
more rigorous the protectorate, the more benevo-
lent its character. The Peace Conference seems
to have given us a new word in "mandatory."
We do not know as yet what adjective will be
found to qualify mandatory, but it will doubtless
be fitting and indicative of idealism — of sorts.
Therefore, all will be well. Our suspicions will
be lulled. It is high time that a substitute was
found for " benevolent protectorate."

The particular form of benevolence noted in
Siam was the total inability of the Siamese to ex-
clude British opium. They are allowed, by the
benevolent powers, to impose an import duty on all
commodities imported — except opium. That is
free. The treaty between Siam and Great Britain
in 1856 says, so. We rather fancy that Great
Britain had more to say about this in 1856 than
Siam, but maybe not. Anyway, poor old Siam,

26

OPIUM IN SIAM 27

an independent kingdom, is bound to receive as
much opium as may be imported, and is quite
powerless, by the terms of this treaty, to enact
laws to exclude it. In the last year or two, the
Government of Siam has been obliged to put the
opium traffic under government control, in order
to minimize the worst evils in connection with it,
although to restrict and regulate an evil is a poor
substitute for the ability to abolish it.

All this, you will see, is rather tough on the
Siamese, but good business for the British Empire.

However, opium is not bad for one. There are
plenty of people to testify to that. We Americans
have a curious notion to the contrary, but then,
we Americans are so hysterical and gullible. An
Englishman whom we met in Bangkok told me
that opium was not only harmless, but actually
beneficial. He said once that he was traveling
through the jungle, into the interior somewhere.
He had quite a train of coolies with him, carrying
himself and his baggage through the dense forests.
By nightfall, he found his coolies terribly exhausted
with the long march. But he was in a hurry to
press on, so, as he expressed it, he gave each of
them a "shot" of morphia, whereupon all traces
of fatigue vanished. They forgot the pain of
their weary arms and legs and were thus enabled
to walk all night. He said that morphia certainly
knocked a lot of work out of men — you might
say, doubled their capacity for endurance.

28 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

The night we left Bangkok, we got aboard the
boat at about nine in the evening. The hatch
was open, and we looked into the hold upon a
crowd of coolies who had been loading sacks of
rice aboard the ship. There they lay upon the
rice sacks, two or three dozen of them, all smoking
opium. Two coolies to a lamp. I rather wondered
that a lamp did not upset and set the boat on
fire, but they are made of heavy glass, with wide
bottoms, so that the chances of overturning them
are slight. So we leaned over the open hatch, look-
ing down at these little fellows, resting and re-
cuperating themselves after their work, refreshing
themselves for the labor of the morrow.

Opium is wonderful, come to think of it. But
why, since it is so beneficial and so profitable,
confine it to the downtrodden races of the world?
Why limit it to the despised races, who have not
sense enough to govern themselves anyway?

The following figures are taken from the Statis-
tical Year Books for the Kingdom of Siam:

Foreign trade and navigation of the port of
Bangkok, imports of opium:

1911-12 1,270 chests of opium

1912-13 1,775

1913-14 1,186

1914-15 2,000 Imported from India and Singapore.

1915-16 2,000

1916-17 i,ioo

1917-18 1,850

OPIUM IN SIAM 29

Also, from the same source, we find the number
of retail opium shops :

1912-13 2,985

1913-14 3,025

1914-15 3,132

1915-16 3,104

1916-17 3,111

VII
HONGKONG

"THE Crown Colony of Hongkong was ceded by
China to Great Britain in January, 1841; the ces-
sion was confirmed by the treaty of Nanking in
August, 1842; and the charter bears date April 5,
1843. Hongkong is the great center for British
commerce with China and Japan, and a military
and naval station of first-class importance."

Thus the Statesman's Year Book. This au-
thority, however, omits to mention just exactly
how this important piece of Chinese territory came
to be ceded to Great Britain. It was the reward
that Great Britain took unto herself as an "in-
demnity" following the successful prosecution of
what is sometimes spoken of as the first opium
war — a war of protest on the part of China against
Great Britain's insistance on her right to deluge
China with opium. China's resistance was in
vain — her efforts to stem the tide of opium were
fruitless — the might, majesty, dominion and power
of the British Empire triumphed, and China was
beaten. The island on which Hongkong is situated
was at that time a blank piece of land; but strat-
egically well placed — ninety miles south of the
great Chinese city of Canton, the market for
British opium.

30

HONGKONG 31

The opposite peninsula of Kowloon, on the
mainland, was ceded to Great Britain by treaty
in 1861, and now forms part of Hongkong. By
a convention signed at Peking in June, 1898,
there was also leased to Great Britain for 99 years
a portion of Chinese territory mainly agricultural,
together with the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep
Bay, and the island of Lan-tao. Its area is 356
square miles, with about 91,000 inhabitants, ex-
clusively Chinese. Area of Old Kowloon is 3
square miles. Total area of colony, 391 square
miles.

The population of Hongkong, excluding the
Military and Naval establishments, and that
portion of the new territory outside New Kow-
loon, was according to the 1911 Census, 366,145
inhabitants. Of this number the Chinese num-
bered 354,187.

This colony is, of course, governed by Great
Britain, and is not subject to Chinese control.
Here is situated a Government opium factory,
and the imports of Indian opium into Hongkong
for the past several years are as follows :

!9°3- 4 3,576,43! pounds sterling

1904- 5 4,036,436

1905- 6 3,775,826

1906- 7 3,771,409

1907- 8 3,HS,403

1908- 9 2,230,755
1909-10 3,377,222

32 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

1910-11 3,963,264 pounds sterlings

1911-12 3,019,858

1912-13 2,406,084

1913-14 1,084,093
1914-15 110,712

These figures are taken from "Statistical Ab-
stract Relating to British India, 1905-6 to 1911-
15," and " Statistical Abstract Relating to British
India, 1903-4 to 1912-13." The falling off in
imports of opium noticed in 1914-15 may be
due to the war, lack of shipping, etc., or to the
fact that the China market was due to close on
April i, 1917. The closing of the China market —
400,000,000 of people destined no longer to have
opium supplied to them (except illegally, by
smuggling, etc.) is naturally a big blow to the
British opium interests. That is where the men-
ace to the rest of the world comes in. Opium has
been proved such a profitable commodity, that
if one market is shut off, others must be found
as substitutes. The idea of closing the trade al-
together naturally does not appeal to those who
profit by it. Therefore, what we should hail at
first sight as a welcome indication of a changed
moral sentiment, is in reality but the pause which
proceeds the casting about for new markets, for
finding new peoples to drug.

The Colonial Report No. 972, Hongkong Re-
port for 1917, gives the imports and exports of
opium: Page 7 —

HONGKONG 33

"The imports and exports of certified opium
during the year as follows :

Imports 7 chests

Export 224 chests

Of these, however, the imports all come from
Shanghai, and of the total export of 224 chests,
1 86 went to Shanghai."

Opium received from other sources than Shang-
hai makes a better showing. "Seven hundred
and forty chests of Persian opium imported during
the year, and seven hundred and forty-five ex-
ported to Formosa. Nine hundred and ten chests
of uncertified Indian opium were imported: Four
hundred and ten chests by the Government Mo-
nopoly, and the remaining five hundred for the
Macao opium farmer."

Macao is a small island off the coast of China,
near Canton — a Portuguese settlement, owned by
Portugal for several centuries, where the opium
trade is in full blast. But somehow, one does not
expect so much of Portugal. The most significant
feature of the above paragraph, however, lies in
the reference to the importation of Persian opium.
" Seven hundred and forty chests of Persian opium
imported." Query, who owns Persia?

Nevertheless, in spite of this poor showing, in
spite of the decrease in opium importation as com-
pared with the palmy days, all is not lost. The
Crown Colony of Hongkong still continues to do

34 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

an active trade. In the Colonial Office List for
1917, on page 218, we read:

"Hongkong. Revenue: About one-third of the
revenue is derived from the Opium Monopoly."

VIII
SARAWAK

NEAR British North Borneo. Area, 42,000 square
miles, many rivers navigable. The government of
part of the present territory was obtained in 1842
by Sir James Brooke from the Sultan of Brunei.
Various accessions were made between 1861, 1885,
and 1890. The Rajah, H. H. Sir Charles Johnson
Brooke, G. C.M.G., nephew to the late Rajah, born
June 3, 1829, succeeded in 1868. Population es-
timated at 500,000, Malays, Dyaks, Kayans, Ken-
yahs, and Muruts, with Chinese and other settlers.

Thus the Statesman's Year Book, to which we
would add a paragraph from an article in the
National Geographic Magazine for February,
1919. Under the title: "Sarawak: The Land of
the White Rajahs" we read: "With the recent
death of Sir Charles Brooke, G. C. M. G., the
second of the white rajahs of Sarawak, there came
to an end one of the most useful and unusual careers
among the many that have done credit to British
rule in the Far East. For nearly 49 years he gov-
erned, as absolute sovereign, a mixed population of
Chinese, Malays, and numerous pagan tribes scat-
tered through the villages and dense jungles of an ex-
tensive territory on the northwest coast of Borneo.

" Constant solicitude for the welfare of his people
35

36 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

won the sympathy and devotion which enabled this
white man, supported by an insignificant army and
police, to establish the peaceful occupations of civili-
zationinplaceof barbarous tyranny and oppression."
How thoroughly this "civilizing" process was
accomplished may be judged somewhat by turning
to the Colonial Office List for 1917, where on
page 436 we read: "Sarawak: The principal
sources of revenue are the opium, gambling, pawn
shops, and arrack, producing:

1908 $483,019

1909 460,416

I9jo 385,070

1911 420,151

1912 426,867

1913 492,455

In the Statesman's Year Book for 1916 we find the
total revenue for this well-governed little colony
as follows, given however in pounds sterling, in-
stead of dollars, as in the above table. Thus:
Revenue — 1910 221,284 pounds sterling

19" 159,456

1912 175,967

1913 210,342

1914 208,823

It would seem as if forty-nine years of constant
solicitude for the welfare of a people, establishing
the peaceful occupations of civilization, might have
resulted in something better than a revenue derived
from opium, gambling, pawn shops and arrack.

IX
SHANGHAI

IN the New York Library there is an interesting
little book, about a quarter of an inch thick, and
easy reading. It is entitled: "Municipal Ethics:
Some Facts and Figures from the Municipal Ga-
zette, 1907-1914. An Examination of the Opium
License policy of the Shanghai Municipality.
In an Open Letter to the Chairman of the Council,
by Arnold Foster, Wuchang. For 42 years Mis-
sionary to the Chinese."

Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, is of two parts.
The native or Shanghai city, under the control
and administration of the Chinese. And the
foreign concessions, that part of the city under
the control and administration of foreigners. This
is generally known as the International Settle-
ment (also called the model settlement), and the
Shanghai Municipal Council is the administrative
body. Over this part the Chinese have no con-
trol. In 1907, when China began her latest
fight against the opium evil, she enacted and en-
forced drastic laws prohibiting opium smoking
and opium selling on Chinese soil, but was power-
less to enforce these laws on "foreign" soil. In
the foreign concessions, the Chinese were able to
buy as much opium as they pleased, merely by

37

38 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

stepping over an imaginary line, into a portion of
the town where the rigid anti-opium laws of China
did not apply.

Says Mr. Arnold, in his Open Letter: "It will
be seen that the title of the pamphlet, Municipal
Ethics, describes a situation which is a complex
one. It concerns first the actual attitude of the
Shanghai Municipal Council towards the Chinese
national movement for the suppression of the use
of opium. This, we are assured by successive
Chairmen of the Council, has been one of "sin-
cere sympathy," "the greatest sympathy," and
more to the same effect. Certainly no one would
have guessed this from the facts and figures re-
produced in this pamphlet from the columns of
the " Municipal Gazette."

"The second element in the ethical situation
is the actual attitude of the Council not only
towards the Chinese national movement, but
also towards its own official assurances, protesta-
tions and promises.

"It is on this second branch of the subject
before us that I specially desire to focus attention,
and for the facts here stated that I would bespeak
the most searching examination. The protesta-
tions of the Council as to its own virtuous attitude
in regard to opium reform in China are made the
more emphatic, and also the more open to criticism,
by being coupled with some very severe insinua-
tions made at the time, as to the insincerity and

SHANGHAI 39

unreliability of the Chinese authorities in what
they were professing, and in what they were plan-
ning to do in the same matter of opium reform. It
so happens, as the event proves, that these sneers
and insinuations were not only quite uncalled
for, but were absolutely and utterly unjust. When
a comparison is instituted between (a) ' official
pronouncements' made two years ago by the
Chinese authorities as to what they then intended
to do for the suppression of the opium habit,
and (b) the ' actual administrative results' that
in the meanwhile have been accomplished, the
Chinese have no cause to be ashamed of the verdict
of impartial judges. What they have done may
not always have been wise, it may sometimes have
been very stern, but the outcome has been to
awaken the astonishment and admiration of the
whole civilized world! When, on the other hand,
a comparison is instituted between (a) the fine
professions and assurances of the Shanghai Munic-
ipal Council made six or seven years ago as to its
own attitude towards the 'eradication of the
opium evil' and (b) the 'actual administrative
results' of the Council's own proceedings, the
feelings awakened are of very different order.
Here, not to mention any other consideration,
two hard facts stare one in the face: First, in
October, 1907, there were eighty-seven licensed
opium shops in the International Settlement. In
May, 1914, there were six hundred and sixty-

40 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

three. In 1907 the average monthly revenue from
opium licenses, dens and shops combined, was
Taels 5,450. In May, 1914, the revenue from
licenses and opium shops alone was Taels 10,995.
The Council will not dispute these figures."

At the beginning of the anti-opium campaign
in 1907, there were 700 dens (for smoking) in the
Native City, and 1600 in the International Settle-
ment. The Chinese closed their dens and shops at
once. In the Settlement, the dens were not all
closed until two years later, and the number of
shops in the Settlement increased by leaps and
bounds. Table I shows an outline of the Munic-
ipal opium-shop profits concurrent with the clos-
ing of the opium houses — and subsequently:

Year Month Dens Shops Monthly revenue, shops only

1908 Jan. 1436 87 Taels, 338
Oct. 1005 131 623

1909 Jan. 599 166 1,887
Oct. 297 231 2,276

1910 Oct. Closed 306 5,071

1911 Oct. 348 5,415

1912 Nov. 402 5,88i

1913 Dec. 560 8,953

1914 March 628 10,188
April 654 10,772

Mr. Arnold quotes part of a speech made by the
Chairman of the Municipal Council, in March,
1908. The Chairman says in part: "The advice
which we have received from the British Govern-

SHANGHAI 41

ment is, in brief, that we should do more than keep
pace with the native authorities, we should be in
advance of them, and where possible, encourage
them to follow us." It must have been most dis-
heartening to the native authorities, suppressing
the opium traffic with the utmost rigor, to see
their efforts defied and nullified by the increased
opportunities for obtaining opium in that part of
Shanghai over which the Chinese have no control.
A letter from a Chinese to a London paper, gives
the Chinese point of view :" China . . . is obliged
to submit to the ruthless and heartless manner
in which British merchants, under the protection
of the Shanghai 'Model Settlement' are exploit-
ing her to the fullest extent of their ability."

There is lots of money in opium, however. The
following tables compiled by Mr. Arnold show the
comparison between the amount derived from
opium licenses as compared with the amount de-
rived from other sorts of licenses.

1913. Wheelbarrows Taels, 38,670

Carts 22,944

Motor cars 12,376

Cargo boats 5>47i

Chinese boats 4>798

Steam launches 2,221 Total, 86,480

Opium shops 86,386 Opium, 86,386

Another table shows the licensed institutions in
Shanghai representing normal social life (chiefly

42 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

of the Chinese) as compared with revenue from
opium shops:

1913. Tavern Taels, 16,573

Foreign liquor seller. . 19,483

Chinese wine shop... . 28,583

" tea shop .... 9484

" theater 8,714

" club 3,146

Total. . 85,983

Opium shops 86,386

Treaty Ports are those cities in China, in which
the foreign powers have extra-territorial holdings,
not subject to Chinese jurisdiction. Shanghai is
one of them, the largest and most important.
The Statistical Abstract Relating to British India
for 1903-4 to 1912-13 shows the exports of British
opium into these Treaty Ports.

1903-4 1,610,296 pounds sterling

1904-5 1,504,604

1905-6 1,130,372

1906-7 1,03 1,065

1907-8 1,215,142

1908-9 2,703,871

1909-10 1,234,432

1910-11 2,203,670

1911-12 3,614,887

1912-13 3,242,902

It was in 1907 that China began her great fight
against the opium evil, and enacted stringent

SHANGHAI 43

laws for its prohibition on Chinese soil. On page
15 of his little book, Mr. Arnold quotes from Com-
missioner Carl, of Canton: "The 1912 figure (for
the importation of foreign opium) is the largest
on record since 1895. The great influx of Chinese
into the foreign concessions, where the anti-
opium smoking regulations cannot be enforced
by the Chinese authorities, and where smoking
can be indulged in without fear of punishment,
no doubt accounts for the unusual increase under
foreign opium."

X

INDIA

INDIA is the source and fount of the British opium
trade, and it is from Indian opium that the drug
is chiefly supplied to the world. As we have said
before, it is a government monopoly. Cultivators,
who wish to plant poppies, may borrow money
from the Government free of interest, the sole
condition being that the crop be sold back to the
Government again. It is manufactured into opium
at the Government factory at Ghazipur, and once
a month, the Government holds auctions at Cal-
cutta, by means of which the drug finds its way
into the trade channels of the world — illicit and
otherwise.*

* This description of the Opium Department is to be found in
Statistics of British India, Financial Statistics, Vol. II, 8th Issue,
page 159:

OPIUM. The region in which the poppy was cultivated in 1916-
17 for the manufacture of "Bengal opium" comprises 32 districts of
the United Provinces of Agra and Ouhd. The whole Department
has, with effect from the 29th September, 1910, been under the con-
trol of one Opium Agent, with headquarters at Ghazipur. At Ghazi-
pur there is a Government factory where the crude opium is manu-
factured into the form in which it passes into consumption. The
cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium are regulated
by Act XIII of 1857, as amended by Act I of 1911, and are under
the general control of the Lieutenant Governor and the Board of
Revenue of the United Provinces, and the immediate supervision
of the Opium Agent at Ghazipur. The possession, transport, import

44

INDIA 45

The following facts are taken from "Statistics
of British India. Financial Statistics, Volume II,

and export of opium are regulated by rules framed under the Indian
Opium Act. Cultivation is permitted only under licenses granted
under the authority of the Opium Agent. The area to be cultivated
is fixed by the license, and the cultivator is bound to sell the whole
of his production to the Opium Department at the rate fixed by

Government Advances, on which no interest is charged,

are given to licensed cultivators at the time of executing the agree-
ment and from time to time (though ordinarily no more than two
advances are given) until final delivery. In March, April and May
the opium is made over to the officers of the Department, and weighed
and tested, and as soon as possible afterwards each cultivator's ac-
counts are adjusted, and the balance due is paid him. After weigh-
ment the opium is forwarded to the Government factory at Ghazipur,
where it is manufactured in 3 forms — (a) opium intended for export
to foreign countries, departmentally known as "provision opium" —
(b) opium intended for consumption in India and Burma, depart-
mentally known as "excise opium" and (c) medical opium for ex-
port to London. Provision opium is made up in the form of balls or
cakes, each weighing 3.5 Ibs., and is packed in chests, each chest con-
taining forty cakes, weighing 140 1/7 Ibs. It is generally of 71° effi-
ciency. Excise opium is made up in cubical packets, each weighing
one seer, 60 of which are packed in a case. It is of higher consistency
than the "provision opium." Medical opium is made up into cakes
weighing 2 Ibs. Provision opium is sold by public auction in Calcutta.
A notification is published annually, generally about the month of
June, stating the number of chests which will be put up for sale in
each month of the next calendar year, and the quantities so notified
are not altered without three months notice. Sales are conducted
month by month by the Bengal Government; 7,000 chests were noti-
fied for sale in 1917 for shipment to non-China markets. The number
of chests actually sold was 4,615. In addition to this, 4,500 chests
were sold to the Government of the Straits Settlements, 2,200 to the
Government of Netherland Indies, and 410 to the Government of
Hongkong. The duty levied by Government on each chest may be
taken to be the difference between the average price realized and the
average cost.

46 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

Eighth Issue," to be found at the New York
Public Library:

AREA UNDER POPPY CULTIVATION

Acreage: 1910-11 362,868

1911-12 200,672

1912-13 178,263

1913-14 144,561

1914-15 164,911

1915-16 167,155

1916-17 204,186

In the hey-dey of the China trade, 613,996 acres
were under cultivation in the years 1905-6, con-
sequently this is a drop in the extent of acreage.
But, as we have said before, the closing of the
China market simply means that other outlets
must be found, and apparently they are being
found, since from 1914 onwards, the acreage de-
voted to poppy planting is slowly increasing again.
The opium manufactured in the Government
factory is of three kinds — provision opium for
export; excise opium, for consumption in India,
and medical opium, for export to London. It is
this latter form of opium which, according to Mr.
MacDonald, in his "Trade Politics and Chris-
tianity in Africa and the East" is being manu-
factured into morphia by three British firms, two
in Edinburgh and one in London, which morphia
the Japanese lare buying and smuggling into North
China.

INDIA 47

The "Statistics of British India" shows the
countries into which Indian opium has been ex-
ported: we will take the figures for the last five
years, which show the number of chests sent out.

48

THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

N O O O O O O u->\O O

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ountries

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INDIA 49

In some countries we see a falling off, as in China.
Cochin-China, the French colony, shows a con-
siderable increase — the little Annamites, Ton-
quinese, Cambodgians and other inhabitants of
this colony of the French Republic being shown
what's what. Mauretius, a British Colony five
hundred miles off the coast of Madagascar, in the
Indian ocean, seems to be coming on. The falling
off in shipments to the United Kingsom may
possibly have been due to the war and the scarcity
of ships. "Other countries" seem to be holding
their own. With the end of the war, the increase
in ships, and general trade revival, we may yet
see compensation for the loss of China. With the
increase of drug addicts in the United States,
it may be that in time America will no longer
be classed under "other countries" but will have
a column all to itself.

In another table we find a comparison as to the
number of chests of provision or export opium and
of excise opium, or that intended for consump-
tion in India. Thus:

Provision Opium Excise Opium

1910-11 15,000 chests 8,61 1 chests

1911-12 14,000 9,126

1912-13 7,000 9,947

1913-14 12,000 8,307

1914-15 10,000 8,943

1915-16 12,000 8,391

1916-17 12,000 8,732

5O THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

Each chest contains roughly about one hunched
and forty pounds.

REVENUE

The revenue of India is derived from various
sources, and is classified under eight heads. Thus :
for 1916-17.

I. Land
Forest
Tribute from Native

States Total £25,124,489

II. Opium 3,160,005

III. Taxation:

1. Salt

2. Stamps

3. Excise

4. Customs

5. Provincial rates

6. Income tax

7. Registration 32,822,976

IV. Debt Services 1,136,504

V. Civil Services 2,364,985

VI. Military Services 1,575,946

VII. Commercial:

1. Post

2. Telegraph

3. Railways

4. Irrigation S^SQS.S66

VIII. Miscellaneous Receipts.. . . 1,221,497

Grand total £118,799,968

INDIA 51

Out of these eight classifications, opium comes
fourth on the list.

But in addition to the direct opium revenue,
we must add another item, Excise, which is
found under the third heading, taxation. In the
"India Office List for 1918" we find "Excise"
explained as follows: Page 383: "Excise and
Customs: Excise duties in India are levied with
the two fold object of raising revenue and re-
stricting the use of intoxicants and narcotics."
In the same book, on page 385, we also read: "Ex-
cise and Customs Revenues: The total of the ex-
cise and customs revenues on liquors and drugs
in 1915-16 was in round figures ten million pounds.
This total gives an average of rather more than
ninepence a head on the whole population of
British India as the revenue charge on drink and
drugs during the year."

These excise duties are collected on spirits, beer,
opium and intoxicating drugs, such as ganja,
charas, and bhang, all forms or preparations of
Indian hemp (Cannabis Indica), known in some
countries as hashish. In 1917-18 there were 17,369
drug shops throughout India. The excise duties
collected from these sources was pretty evenly
distributed. Excise revenue for a period of years
is as follows:

THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

Excise

Opium

Total Revenue

1907-8

£6,214,210

£5,244,986

£88,670,329

1908-9

6,389,628

5,884,788

86,074,624

1909-10

6,537,854

5,534,683

91,130,296

1910-11

7,030,314

7,521,962

97,470,114

1911-12

7,609,753

5,961,278

100,580,799

1912-13

8,277,919

5,124,592

106,254,327

1913-14

8,894,300

1,624,878

105,220,777

1914-15

8,856,881

1,572,218

101,534,375

1915-16

8,632,209

I,9I3,5H

104,704,041

1916-17

9,215,899

3,160,005

118,799,968

The "Statistics of British India for 1918" has
this to say on the subject of Excise (page 218):
"Revenue: During the ten years ending with
1916-17 the net receipts from Excise duties in-
creased ... at the rate of 47 per cent. The re-
ceipts from opium (consumed in India, not ex-
ported) being at the rate of 44 per cent. The net
receipts from liquors and from drugs other than
opium . . . the increase at the rate of 48 per
cent. This large increase is due not merely to
the expansion of consumption, but also to the
imposition of progressively higher rates of duty
and the increasingly extensive control of the ex-
cise administration. The revenue from drugs,
(excluding opium) has risen in ten years . . . the
increase being at the rate of 67 per cent."

A national psychology that can review these
figures with complacency, satisfaction and pride
is not akin to American psychology. A nation

INDIA 53

that can subjugate 300,000,000 helpless people, and
then turn them into drug addicts — for the sake
of revenue — is a nation which commits a cold-
blooded atrocity unparalleled by any atrocities
committed in the rage and heat of war. The
Blue Book shows no horror at these figures. Com-
placent approval greets the increase of 44 per cent
of opium consumption, and the increase of 67 per
cent in the use of other habit-forming drugs. Ap-
proval, and a shrewd appreciation of the possibili-
ties for more revenue from "progressively higher
rates of duty," knowing well that drug addicts
will sell soul and body in order to procure their
daily supply.

XI
TURKEY AND PERSIA

NEXT to India, the greatest two opium-producing
countries in the world are Turkey and Persia.
The Statesman's Year Book for 1918 has this to
say about it. On page 1334: "The principal ex-
ports from Turkey into the United Kingdom . . .
in two years were:

1915 1916

Barley £156,766 £49,413

Raisins 127,014 34,003

Dried fruit 37S,S19 54°>633

Wool 36,719 143,216

Tobacco 149,100 3,7H

Opium 262,293 48,090

These are the only articles mentioned in this list
of chief exports. There are others, doubtless, but
the Statesman's Year Book is a condensed and
compact little volume, dealing only with the
principal things exported. In 1915 we therefore
notice that the opium export was second on the
list, being exceeded by but one other, dried fruit.
In 1916, the third year of the war, the opium ex-
port is decidedly less, as are all the other articles
exported, except dried fruit and wool — which were
articles probably more vital to the United King-
dom at that time even than opium.

54

PERSIA

THE same authority, the Statesman's Year Book
for 1918, gives a table on page 1162, showing the
value of the chief exports from Persia. The values
are given in thousands of kran, sixty kran equaling
one pound sterling.

Opium .............. 41,446 kran 41,732 kran

Since the war, both Turkey and Persia are more
or less under control of the British Empire, which
gives Great Britain virtual control of the world's
output of opium. With this monopoly of the
opium-producing countries, and with a million
or so square miles added to her immense colonial
Empire, one wonders what use Great Britain will
make of the mandatory powers she has assumed
over the lives and welfare of all these subject
peoples! Will she find these helpless millions
ready for her opium trade? Will she establish
opium shops, and opium divans, and reap half
the costs of upkeep of these newly acquired states
by means of this shameful traffic?

55

XII
MAURETIUS

ANOTHER British colony is Mauretius, acquired
by conquest in 1810, and formally ceded to Great
Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. This
island is in the Indian Ocean, 500 miles east of
Madagascar, with an area of about 720 square
miles. The population is about 377,000, of which
number 258,000 are Indian, and 3,000 Chinese.
Opium appears to be sold in the colony, since the
Blue Book mentions that licenses are required
for opium sellers. As far as we can discover, by
perusal of these Government Reports, the sale
of opium is not conducted by the Government
itself, as in India, the Straits Settlements, Hong-
kong, etc., but is carried on by private dealers
who obtain licenses before they can open opium
shops. A part of the revenue, however, is de-
rived from opium; thus, according to the Blue
Book for the Colony of Mauretius for 1915, page
V 73, we read that the imports of opium for the
year amounted to 1,353 kilos, with a duty col-
lected of 54,126 rupees. The Blue Book for 1916
shows a gratifying increase. Thus, the import of
crude opium from India amounted to 5,690 kilos,
with a duty collected of 227,628 rupees. (See
page V 64.)

56

MAURETIUS 57

1915

Imports of opium .. 1,353 kilos 5,690 kilos

Duty on opium ---- 54>i26 rupees 227,628 rupees
Total duty on all

imports ......... 3*765,677 rupees 4,143,085 rupees

Statistics for British India, Eighth Issue, gives
these figures :

OPIUM EXPORTED TO MAURETIUS

1912-13 ......... i o chests

I9I3-H ......... 19 "

I9H-I5 ......... 23

1915-16 ......... 65 "

1916-17 ......... I2O "

This is a poor little colony, but has its possibilities.
The consumption of opium appears to be increas-
ing steadily in a most satisfactory manner. Con-
gratulations all round.

XIII
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO

BRITISH North Borneo occupies the northern
part of the island of Borneo. Area, about 31,000
square miles, with a coast line of over 900 miles.
Population (1911 census), 208,000, consisting
mainly of Mohammedan settlers on the coast
and aboriginal tribes inland. The Europeans
numbered 355; Chinese 26,000; Malays, 1,612;
East Indians about 5,000 and Filipinos 5,700.
The number of natives cannot be more than ap-
proximately estimated, but is placed at about
170,000. The territory is under the jurisdiction
of the British North Borneo Company, being
held under grants from the Sultans of Brunei
and Sulu (Royal Charter in 1881).

Like many other British colonies, opium is
depended upon for part of the revenue. The
Statesman's Year Book for 1916 observes on
page 107: "Sources of revenue: Opium, birds'
nests, court fees, stamp duty, licenses, import
and export duties, royalties, land sales, etc. No
public debt."

In this frank manner, our attention is called to
opium, which appears first on the list of sources of
revenue.

Going over the files of the Government reports,
58

BRITISH NORTH BORNEO 59

we will begin with the "Supplement to the Official
Gazette for British North Borneo. Administra-
tion Report for the Year 1910." Published June i,
1911. On page 3 we read: Customs and Trade:
The import and export trade of the state shows
a healthy expansion. ... It is interesting to
note that imports show an increase at every sta-
tion. Out of the 47 headings of Tariff, there are
only 7 which show decreases. . . . The largest
increases appear under cloth, $147,106; opium,
$132,692, and iron ware, $118,620. . . . The
general all round increases . . . are of course
due to the demand for supplies of all kinds in con-
nection with the opening of rubber estates."

The Supplement to the Official Gazette, Report
for 1912 (published in December, 1913) is also a
report of general prosperity. Page 4: "Trade:
The volume of trade for the year 1912 was
$11,139,122, giving an increase over 1911 of 18
per cent. . . . Imports: As in 1911, all stations
show an increase of imports. Out of 47 headings,
33 show increases, 12 show decreases, and 2 re-
main stationary. Increases : There was an increase
under rice, flour and grain . . . the increase
under other headings include sundries, opium,
machinery, etc."

The next Government Report is not so happy.
Opium imports show no "healthy expansion."
Thus, the Supplement to the Official Gazette,
Report for 1913 (published I February, 1915)

60 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

says on page 4: "Other decreases in imports were
opium, $109,180. The decrease in opium was due
to the abolition of the Opium Farm, which also
held the Labuan Farm, and opium was therefore
no longer imported from Labuan for use in the
West Coast and the Interior."

Still more bad news as to opium, in the re-
port for 1914, (published I February, 1916). All
imports drop. Page 4 records "Decrease in
imports. . . . Railway and telegraph material,
rice, flour, grain and opium." In this year the
opium imports only amount to $58,464. This
general falling off in all imports may have been
due to the war. But the opium situation was
apparently growing serious. On page 17 of this
same report we read that "Thirty-two ordinances
were passed by the Council and became laws dur-
ing the year. Among them the Opium and
Chandu."

The brevity and meagerness of these official
reports often leave one puzzled as to their meaning.
The Supplement to the Official Gazette for 1915
(published October, 1916), shows still more dis-
couraging news as to opium. Imports that year
amounted to only $31,299. But, in spite of this
discouragement, hope still remains. The same
report shows optimism under the head of Excise.
"Excise: $627,225, against $467,078, an increase
in the nett revenue of $160,147, due to Govern-
ment taking over the sole control of the sale of

BRITISH NORTH BORNEO 6l

chandu (smoking opium) and the collection of
other Excise duties, formerly farmed."

This explains the Ordinance passed by the
Council the preceding year, regarding Opium and
Chandu. Since the Government has taken over
"sole control of the sale of chandu" and will collect
the excise duties systematically and thoroughly,
we may still hope for some future report which
will show once more a "healthy expansion" in
the opium revenue.

XIV
BRITISH GUIANA

SITUATED in South America. Area, 89,480 square
miles. Population at census of 1911, excluding
aborigines in the unfrequented parts of the colony,
296,000. The Statesman's Year Book, which
gives us these brief facts, has very little to say
about this British colony in our Western Hemi-
sphere, and gives no dates or information as to
how and when it was acquired. The Government
reports are also meager and unsatisfactory, and
there is no wealth of detail as to exports and im-
ports. The country, however, is rich in gold,
mining having commenced in 1886. Diamonds
have also been discovered.

The chief sources of revenue, however, are
customs, excise and licenses. With the word "ex-
cise" we have come to have unpleasant associa-
tions. From "The Statistical Abstract for British
Self-Governing Dominions, Colonies, Possessions
and Protectorates" we find a table showing the
imports of opium into the various countries under
British rule. The opium imports into British
Guiana are as follows:

62

BRITISH GUIANA 63

1910 1,251 pounds sterling

1911 1,270

1912 2,474

1913 4,452

I9H 5,455

19*5 4,48i

These figures would seem to indicate that even on
the Western Hemisphere the taste for opium may
be cultivated. It need not necessarily be confined
to the Oriental peoples. The population of much
of South America is a mixed lot, the result of
mixed breeding between Spanish settlers, Indians,
native tribes of all sorts. All this jumble, in-
cluding the aborigines referred to, might, with a
little teaching become profitable customers of
the Opium Monopoly. Time and a little effort,
given this fertile field, ought to produce a "healthy
expansion" in the opium trade.

And that this insidious habit is indeed taking
hold, in at least one more country in South
America, one may infer from the following para-
graph which appeared in the New York Times,
4 October, 1919:

DRUG EVIL IN ARGENTINA

Buenos Aires Opens Fight on Use of Narcotics

The city government of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has
begun a determined fight to wipe out the drug evil by
the enactment of stringent laws governing the sale

64 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

of narcotics. This step was taken after an investiga-
tion by the authorities had disclosed that not only
was the narcotic habit strong among the poor, but that
it was spreading throughout virtually every class in
the city.

Until the passage of the laws druggists were permitted
to sell cocaine, morphine and opium to any purchaser.
The new laws forbid the sale of these drugs except in
filling prescriptions prepared by registered physicians.
The city also has established dispensaries for the treat-
ment of drug addicts.

XV

HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN
CHINA

IN a vague way, we are familiar with the "opium
evil" in China, and some of us have hazy ideas
as to how it came about. The China Year Book
for 1916 has this to say on the subject: "The poppy
has been known in China for 12 centuries, and its
medicinal use for 9 centuries. ... It was not
until the middle of the I7th century that the
practice of mixing opium with tobacco for smok-
ing purposes was introduced into China. This
habit was indulged in by the Dutch in Java, and
by them taken to Formosa, whence it spread to
Amoy and the mainland generally. There is no
record to show when opium was first smoked by
itself, but it is thought to have originated about
the end of the i8th century. Foreign opium
was first introduced by the Portuguese from Goa
at the beginning of the i8th century. In 1729,
when the foreign import was 200 chests, the Em-
peror Yung Ching issued the first anti-opium
edict, enacting severe penalties on the sale of
opium and the opening of opium-smoking divans.
The importation, however, continued to increase,
and by 1790 it amounted to over 4,000 chests
annually. In 1796 opium smoking was again

6s

66 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

prohibited, and in 1800 the importation of foreign
opium was again declared illegal. Opium was
now contraband, but the fact had no effect on
the quantity introduced into the country, which
rose to 5,000 chests in 1820; 16,000 chests in 1830;
20,000 chests in 1838, and 70,000 chests in 1858."

The China Year Book makes no mention of the
traders who carried these chests of opium into
China. The opium came from India, however,
and the increase in importation corresponds with
the British occupation of India, and the golden
days of the East India Company. "Opium was
now contraband, but that fact had no effect on
the quantity introduced into the country," —
smuggled in wholesale by the enterprising British
traders.

China was powerless to protect herself from this
menace, either by protests or prohibition. And as
more and more of the drug was smuggled in, and
more and more of the people became victims of the
habit, the Chinese finally had a tea-party, very
much like our Boston Tea Party, but less success-
ful in outcome. In 1839, in spite of the fact that
opium smoking is an easy habit to acquire and
had been extensively encouraged, the British
traders found themselves with 20,000 chests of
unsold opium on their store-ships, just below
Canton. The Chinese had repeatedly appealed to
the British Government to stop these imports,
but the British Government had turned a per-

HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA 67

sistently deaf ear. Therefore the Emperor de-
termined to deal with the matter on his own ac-
count. He sent a powerful official named Lin
to attend to it, and Lin had a sort of Boston Tea
Party, as we have said, and destroyed some twenty
thousand chests of opium in a very drastic way.
Mr. H. Wells Williams describes it thus: "The
opium was destroyed in the most thorough manner,
by mixing it in parcels of 200 chests, in trenches,
with lime and salt water, and then drawing off
the contents into an adjacent creek at low tide."

After this atrocity, followed the first Opium
War, when British ships sailed up the river, seized
port after port, and bombarded and took Canton.
Her ships sailed up the Yangtsze, and captured
the tribute junks going up the Grand Canal with
revenue to Peking, thus stopping a great part of
China's income. Peace was concluded in 1843,
and Great Britain came out well. She recom-
pensed herself by taking the island of Hongkong;
an indemnity of 21 million dollars, and Canton,
Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai were
opened up as "treaty ports" — for the importation
of opium and the "open-door" in general.

Mr. Wells, in his "Middle Kingdom" de-
scribes the origin of this first war with England:
"This war was extraordinary in its origin as
growing chiefly out of a commercial misunder-
standing; remarkable in its course as being waged
between strength and weakness, conscious su-

68 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

periority and ignorant pride; melancholy in its
end as forcing the weaker to pay for opium within
its borders against all its laws, thus paralyzing
the little moral power its feeble government could
exert to protect its subjects. ... It was a turn-
ing point in the national life of the Chinese race,
but the compulsory payment of six million dollars
for the opium destroyed has left a stigma upon the
English name."

He also says, "The conflict was now fairly begun;
its issue between the parties so unequally matched
— one having almost nothing but the right on its
side, the other assisted by every material and
physical advantage — could easily be foreseen"
and again, after speaking of it as as being unjust
and immoral, he concludes "Great Britain, the
first Christian power, really waged this war against
the pagan monarch who had only endeavored to
put down a vice harmful to his people. The war
was looked upon in this light by the Chinese; it
will always be so looked upon by the candid his-
torian, and known as the Opium War."

Within fifteen years after this first war, there
was another one, and again Great Britain came
off victorious. China had to pay another in-
demnity, three million dollars, and five more
treaty ports were opened up. By the terms of the
Treaty of Tientsin, the sale of opium in China
was legalized in 1858.

From a small pamphlet, "Opium: England's

HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA 69

Coercive Policy and Its Disastrous Results in
China and India" by the Rev. John Liggins, we
find the following: "As a specimen of how both
wars were carried on, we quote the following
from an English writer on the bombardment of
Canton: 'Field pieces loaded with grape were
planted at the end of long, narrow streets crowded
with innocent men, women and children, to mow
them down like grass till the gutters flowed with
their blood.' In one scene of carnage, the Times
correspondent recorded that half an army of
10,000 men were in ten minutes destroyed by the
sword, or forced into the broad river. " The Morn-
ing Herald " asserted that "a more horrible or re-
volting crime than this bombardment of Canton
has never been committed in the worst ages of bar-
baric darkness."

Naturally, therefore, after the termination of
these two wars, China gave up the struggle. She
had fought valiantly to protect her people from
opium, but the resources of a Christian nation
were too much for her. Seeing therefore that the
opium trade was to be forced upon her, and that
her people were doomed to degradation, she de-
cided to plant poppies herself. There should be
competition at least, and the money should not
all be drained out of the country. Thus it came
about that after 1858 extensive tracts of land were
given over to poppy production. Whole provinces
or parts of provinces, ceased to grow grain and

7O THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

other necessities, and diverted their rich river
bottoms to the raising of opium. Chinese opium,
however, never supplanted Indian opium, being
inferior to that raised in the rich valley of the
Ganges. The country merely had double quan-
tities of the drug, used straight or blended, to suit
the purse or taste of the consumer.

Then, in 1906, the incredible happened. After
over a hundred years of steady demoralization,
with half her population opium addicts, or worse
still, making enormous profits out of the trade,
China determined to give up opium. In all his-
tory, no nation has ever set itself such a gigantic
task, with such a gigantic handicap. China, a
country of immense distances, with scant means of
communication; with no common language, a
land where only the scholars can read and write,
suddenly decided to free herself from this vice.
The Emperor issued an edict saying that in ten
years' time all opium traffic must cease, and an
arrangement was made with Great Britain whereby
this might be accomplished. To the honor of
America be it said that we assisted China in this
resolution. We agreed to see her through.

A bargain was then made between China and
Great Britain, in 1907, China agreeing to diminish
poppy cultivation year by year for a period of
ten years, and Great Britain agreeing to a pro-
portional decrease in the imports of Indian opium.
A three years' test was first agreed to, a trial of

HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA 7 1

China's sincerity and ability, for Great Britain
feared that this was but a -ruse to cut off Indian
opium, while leaving China's opium alone in the
field. At the end of three years, however, China
had proved her ability to cope with the situation.
Thus, for a period of ten years, both countries
have lived up to their bargain, the amount of
native and foreign opium declining steadily in a
decreasing scale. April I, 1917, saw the end of the
accomplishment.

China's part was most difficult. In the remote,
interior provinces, poppies were grown surrepti-
tiously, connived at by corrupt officials who made
money from the crops. However, drastic laws
were enacted and severe penalties imposed upon
those who broke them. If poppy cultivation
could not be stopped, England would not hold to
her end of the bargain. Not only was there a
nation of addicts to deal with, but these could
obtain copious supplies of opium from the foreign
concessions, over which the Chinese had no con-
trol. We shall show, in another article, to what
extent this was carried on. Yet somehow, in
some manner, the impossible happened. Year by
year, little by little, one province after another
was freed from poppy cultivation, until in 1917,
China was practically free from the native-grown
drug, and foreign importation had practically
ended.

In this manner, first by large smuggling, then

72 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

by two opium wars, was China drugged with
opium. And in this manner, and to this extent,
has she succeeded in freeing herself from the curse.
But in one way, she is not free. She has no con-
trol over the extra-territorial holdings of Eu-
ropean powers, for in each treaty port are the
foreign concessions already mentioned — German,
Austrian, British, French, Russian. And in these
concessions, opium may be procured. Simply
by crossing an imaginary line, in such cities as
Shanghai and Hongkong, can the Chinese buy
as much opium as they choose. China will never
be rid of this menace till she is rid of these extra-
territorial holdings. Opium shops, licensed by
foreign governments, are always ready to supply
her people with the forbidden drug.

We say that the China market is closed. So it
is, in one way. But the British Opium Monopoly
is not ended. The year 1917 saw a tremendous
blow dealt to the British opium dealers, but other
markets will be found. There are other countries
than China whose inhabitants can be taught this
vice. The object of this discussion is to consider
these other countries, and to see to what extent
the world is menaced by this possibility.

XVI
CONCLUSION

THERE are many people who advocate the use of
opium, and who defend the policy of the Opium
Monopoly. They argue that it is not harmful — if
taken in moderation. They even assert that it is
no more objectionable than alcohol or tobacco.
Leaving out of account, therefore, the consensus
of opinion of the medical profession as to the evils
of habit-forming drugs, and accepting the theory
that opium is harmless, we should then like to ask
why the use of opium is so carefully restricted
to the peoples of subject states, who have no voice
in their own affairs? Why should the benefits
of opium be confined to Oriental races, and why
should not the white race be given the same op-
portunities for indulgence? Is there any reason
for this discrimination? As a source of revenue, it
certainly has advantages. Yet curiously enough,
those European countries which derive much profit
through the sale of opium to their subject races,
seem to have an aversion to introducing it to their
people at home. And there is a further coincidence
in the fact that none of the self-governing colonies
of European countries — Australia, New Zealand
and Canada — permit this traffic. It appears to be
only the subject peoples, whose well-being has

73

74 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

become the White Man's Burden, who receive the
blessings of this peculiar form of altruism. Is it
because the white race is worth preserving, worth
protecting, and because subject nations are fair
game for exploitation of any kind?

Another argument advanced by advocates of
Government opium is that the Oriental peoples
are "different" — that opium does them no harm.
Every writer on the subject of opium in China,
produces evidence to show the shocking results
upon that country, during the hey-dey of the
deluge. The complete moral degradation, and
economic ruin of thousands of helpless individuals.
Nor do we think the medical profession would
agree with this assumption that opium is harmless
to Orientals, because they are "different." Their
only real difference lies in their helplessness to
protect themselves from foreign aggression.

Another argument advanced by the upholders
of the Monopoly is that the Orientals have always
been users of opium, that they like it, it suits
them, it would be unfair to deprive them of it.
We have seen to what extent the Chinese liked it,
and how it was forced upon them by two wars.
Not until they were completely crushed, and had
to accept the terms of the conquerer, did they
submit. It can hardly, therefore, be called a
vice indigenous to the Chinese. Japan is another
Oriental nation that disproves this argument.
As we have said before, there are no opium shops

CONCLUSION 75

in Japan, and the sale of opium is not conducted
by the Japanese Government. On the contrary,
the Japanese have the same fear of this drug that
a European nation has, and exercises the same
precautions to protect its people. But, as we
have said before, Japan is the only Oriental na-
tion that has not been subjugated by a European
nation, and therefore has never had opium thrust
upon her. She is the only country in the Far East
that has managed to preserve her sovereignty,
and has never been subject to certain blighting
influences of European culture.

Another exception to this assumption that the
Orientals cannot do without opium lies in the
Philippines. When America acquired those islands
some twenty years ago, our first act was to
eliminate the opium traffic, which had been es-
tablished there by our predecessors. It had been
in existence for decades, but we immediately set
about to abolish it. Root and branch we did away
with it, and shed no crocodile tears as to the "hard-
ship" this would be to the people who had come
under our protection. We wished no revenue com-
ing from such a source as this. Yet we might
have cut in half the cost of our Philippine budget
had we followed the example set by other nations.
We have seen that certain British colonies, Hong-
kong and the Straits Settlements, for example,
derive from one-third to one-half of their upkeep
expenses from this traffic. But we refrained from

76 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

treating our Filipinos in this manner. We are
called sentimentalists out in the East — at such
times as we are not called money-getters. To-day,
the Philippines are very nearly ready for self-
government. Would they have been so nearly
ready had we continued to drug them as they had
been drugged before we took possession ? Drugged
peoples are usually docile and submissive — per-
haps that is the secret of much of the successful
colonizing, about which we hear so much.

But let us leave aside the question of the Ori-
entals, and whether or no opium is good for them.
We recognize quite clearly that it is not good for
ourselves, for Americans. We recognize that
fact quite as clearly as England realizes that it is
not good for the inhabitants of the British Isles.
Quite as clearly as France, while setting up opium
shops in her colony of Indo-China, refuses to
establish them in Paris or Marseilles. America
is unique in the fact that although we have co-
lonial possessions, we do not have a double stand-
ard of morality. We attempt to throw around our
colonies the same safeguards that we throw around
ourselves at home. But the question arises, how
successful are we in protecting ourselves at home?
Not particularly so, according to the daily press.

How great the danger to ourselves was recog-
nized some thirty-seven years ago by an Episcopal
missionary to China, the Rev. John Liggins. In
1882 he published a small book, already referred

CONCLUSION 77

to, entitled: "England's Coercive Opium Policy
and Its Disastrous Results in China and India."
The preface to this unheeded warning runs thus.
"Our aim in this sketch is to present, as briefly
as possible, the most important facts and testi-
monies concerning a traffic which is as disgraceful
to England as it is ruinous to China and hurtful
to India. ... It is also of the highest importance
that the people throughout our wide domain
should be aroused concerning the new, fascinating
and deadly foe which has entered our country
through the Golden Gate, and which already
numbers its victims by the thousands, and will
soon do so by the tens of thousands."

The Rev. Mr. Liggins saw it coming — that
danger which is almost ready to overwhelm us
to-day. He recognized clearly that the Opium
Monopoly of that great nation which rules nearly
one-third of the world — the British Empire-
would in time reach further and further afield
for new victims. It is too lucrative a trade to be
confined to only a few countries. Markets must
not only be created and legalized in subject states,
but new ones added in outside countries, through
smuggling. All too fatally easy of accomplish-
ment, and so profitable, financially, as to be worth
any risk and effort. The prediction as to our own
danger, made in 1882, seems to be abundantly
realized.

The number of drug addicts in America to-day

78 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

are fairly startling. The number is variously
estimated in New York City alone as from ten
thousand to one hundred thousand. It is said
that there may be a million in the country. Yet
these figures are the merest guesswork, by no
means substantiated. Certain it is that the cam-
paign of the New York Health Department has
uncovered thousands of them, and any other
city that chose to do so, could produce facts
equally startling.

The laws on our statute books concerning the
prescription of narcotic drugs are powerless to
deal with the situation. It is shooting into the
air to try to "regulate" this condition. It is as
thoroughly well "regulated" as it can ever be by
the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act, a Federal Law
whose enforcement is in the hands of the Internal
Revenue Department. By the provisions of this
Act, every pound of opium or its derivatives
that comes into this country, legitimately, is
accounted for, and its distribution, both whole-
sale and retail, made a matter of record. Thus,
the Board of Trade returns show the amount im-
ported by the big wholesale drug houses. These
must account for their sales to the retail drug
stores, and the amounts must tally. The drug
stores can only sell narcotic drugs on a physician's
prescription, and the prescriptions are kept on
file, and the quantity sold must correspond to the
quantity called for by these prescriptions, as

CONCLUSION 79

well as to the amount obtained from the whole-
sale drug house. In prescribing narcotics, the
physician is obliged to write his prescription in
triplicate — one copy for his own protection, one
copy for the local druggist, and one copy to be
filed with the health department. Nor is he al-
lowed to prescribe narcotics for an addict without
decreasing the dosage. His prescription cannot
call for thirty grains of morphia day after day —
it must show, in a chronic case of this kind, a
daily diminution of the amount prescribed, thus
indicating a desire to get the patient off the drug,
eventually. All these records are kept on file,
open to inspection whenever an accounting is de-
manded, consequently any leak can be instantly
accounted for. This Harrison Act is as com-
prehensive and as nearly perfect as possible, yet
it does not cover the situation. By this means,
violations can be detected, whether on the part
of an unscrupulous physician or druggist, or even
the wholesale house, but these violations are
only occasional. The root of the evil remains un-
touched.

At one time, it was believed that carelessness
on the part of the physician was chiefly responsible
for creating drug addicts, but the recent campaign
against violators of the Harrison Act seems to
have completely exonerated him of this charge.
For one patient who becomes a drug addict while
under a doctor's care, through the accidental

j

8O THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

misuse of morphia, there are a hundred who form
the habit through other ways. It is not the oc-
casional, accidental victim, given morphia for the
relief of pain, which is creating our thousands of
drug users. It is not the occasional unscrupulous
physician who is responsible. If this was all, we
could easily cope with these unwitting abuses,
or even deliberate instances of misuse. But the
question goes deeper than this.

The Opium Monopoly was not established for
any humane or altrustic purpose. It was not es-
tablished to provide the medical profession with a
drug for the relief of pain, to ease the agony of
the injured and wounded, or to calm the last days
of those dying with an incurable disease. This,
which may be called the legitimate use of opium,
is not the object of the Opium Monopoly. Used
only in this manner, there would be no money in
it. It is only when opium is produced in quanti-
ties far in excess of the legitimate needs of the
world that it becomes worth while — to the Opium
Monopoly. That Monopoly was established not
to relieve pain and suffering, but with the deliber-
ate intention of creating pain and suffering, by
creating drug victims by the thousand. It is
these hundreds of thousands of customers that
are profitable. The menace to America lies in the
large amounts of opium which are smuggled into
the country for this purpose. Boys and girls of
sixteen and seventeen first acquire this habit

CONCLUSION 8 1

through curiosity, through association with what
they call "bad company," peddlers who first
offer it free, as a gift, well knowing that after
a few doses the fatal habit will be formed. Where
do these vendors obtain their supplies?

The daily papers often contain suggestive para-
graphs. Thus the " New York Times," under date
of February 28, 1919 :" Seize Opium in Schenectady.
Opium, valued by Federal officials at $10,000
was seized in Schenectady, and four Chinamen
were arrested in a raid on Chinese places of busi-
ness on Centre street today. The Federal of-
ficials expressed the belief that opium had been
smuggled, and that Schenectady is the distributing
point for this part of the State."

An item in the " Seattle Union Record," of
June 24, 1919, gives us cause for further con-
sideration.

BRITISH DRUG SHIP HELD BY UNITED
STATES

FINE OF $49,265 ASSESSED FOR BRINGING "DOPE"
TO AMERICA

LINER ALLOWED TO MOVE UNDER BOND
No ARRESTS MADE, THOUGH BOOZE Is FOUND ABOARD

No arrests were made up to Tuesday noon in con-
nection with the enormous seizure of opium, cocaine
and liquor on the Blue Funnel liner Cyclops, although
the investigation is being continued by federal officials.

82 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

The ship has been seized and a fine of $49,265 has been
assessed against her for having drugs not listed in the
ship's manifest.

United States District Attorney Robert C. Saunders
filed a libel Monday night against the Cyclops, the
boat being seized later by the customs service. Bond
was fixed at $100,000, or twice the fine. The Fidelity
Surety Company filed the bond Monday. The ship
was released Tuesday morning.

A civil libel suit may be filed against Capt. W. Dun-
can, holding him responsible for the liquor found on
the ship. Captain Duncan, questioned Monday by
customs officials, claimed to know nothing about the
contraband.

The result of Monday's checking of the opium and
cocaine showed that the seizure amounted to 778 tins
of opium, 670 ounces of cocaine and 16 ounces of mor-
phine.

A small paragraph in a New York paper, dated
June 12, 1919, reads thus: "Two New Yorkers
jailed for smuggling opium. Pleas of guilty to
charges of opium smuggling were entered in the
Federal Court today by Albertus Schneitzer and
Maxwell Auerbach, of New York. They were
fined $500 each, and sent to Atlanta penitentiary,
the former for two years, and the latter for one
year. The men were arrested in connection with
the seizure of opium on the Canadian border."

We cannot grapple with our problem unless we
face the facts; if we ignore the source of supply
and distribution, and the reasons for this immense

CONCLUSION 83

over-production of opium on the part of the
British Opium Monopoly. The anti-narcotic laws
on our statute books are powerless to protect
us. With Canada, a British province, to the north,
and all Mexico on the south, what chance have we
against such exposure? Of what use to send two
smugglers to the penitentiary, when at the Cal-
cutta opium sales, once a month opium is auc-
tioned off under the auspices of the British Govern-
ment, to be disposed of as the buyers may see fit?
Much of it, as we have seen, goes to those helpless
states and colonies which have no control over their
own affairs, where the opium traffic is conducted
under the administration of the alien government.
Much of the rest of it goes out for smuggling
purposes, to be distributed in devious, round-
about, underhand channels throughout the world.
We are coming in for our share in this distribu-
tion.

We feel that our country is in grave peril. Our
politicians and our diplomats have been too care-
ful all these years, to speak of this business, through
fear of offending a powerful nation. But we feel
that the time has now come to speak. England
has been relying upon our silence to "get away
with it." Upon our ignorance, and upon that
silence which gives consent. But in this new,
changed world, reborn out of the blood and agony
of the great war, is it not time to practice some of
the decencies which we have proclaimed so loudly?

84 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY

As we have said before, no stronger opponents
of this policy are to be found than among a sec-
tion of the people of England itself. We look to
them to join us, in this great issue, and we feel
that we shall not look in vain.

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